Test 8 · ★★★ · Rockets, record speeds and motion everywhere

Why might a satellite need to be launched from near the equator, where the ground spins fastest?

Mova's choice: option 4 · The right answer: option 2 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: ground · What happens: launch, spin · To what, where: equator

This is test 8 · ★★★ of lesson 38 «Rockets, record speeds and motion everywhere» of the physics course of Mova's primary school. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Why	why	ADV	PronType=Int	18 fastest	advmod
2	might	might	AUX	VerbForm=Fin	18 fastest	aux
3	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	5 need	det
4	satellite	satellite	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 need	compound
5	need	need	NOUN	Number=Sing	18 fastest	nsubj
6	to	to	PART	_	8 launched	mark
7	be	be	AUX	VerbForm=Inf	8 launched	aux:pass
8	launched	launch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	5 need	acl
9	from	from	ADP	_	12 equator	case
10	near	near	ADP	_	12 equator	case
11	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	12 equator	det
12	equator	equator	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 launched	obl
13	,	,	PUNCT	_	17 spins	punct
14	where	where	ADV	PronType=Rel	17 spins	advmod
15	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	16 ground	det
16	ground	ground	NOUN	Number=Sing	17 spins	nsubj
17	spins	spin	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	18 fastest	advcl
18	fastest	fast	ADJ	Degree=Sup	root	root
19	?	?	PUNCT	_	18 fastest	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	launch	to-infinitive · passive				the equator			vn throw-17.1-1-1 «NP V NP PP.initial_location»: from equator=Initial_Location
2	spin	present	the ground						vn roll-51.3.1 «NP.theme V»: agent=Theme

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1

Gravity is switched off at the equator, so lifting is easy

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Gravity	gravity	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 switched	nsubj:pass
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 switched	aux:pass
3	switched	switch	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	off	off	ADP	_	3 switched	compound:prt
5	at	at	ADP	_	7 equator	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 equator	det
7	equator	equator	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 switched	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	12 easy	punct
9	so	so	ADV	_	12 easy	advmod
10	lifting	lifting	NOUN	Number=Sing	12 easy	nsubj
11	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	12 easy	cop
12	easy	easy	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 switched	advcl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	switch off	present · passive		Gravity		the equator			vn convert-26.6.2-1-1 «NP V NP»: subject=Patient
2	is	present	lifting					easy property	tree rules

Option 2 · ✓ the right answer

The Earth's spin gives it a free sideways start

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Earth	det
2	Earth	Earth	PROPN	Number=Sing	4 spin	nmod:poss
3	's	's	PART	_	2 Earth	case
4	spin	spin	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 gives	nsubj
5	gives	give	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	5 gives	obj
7	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	10 start	det
8	free	free	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 start	amod
9	sideways	sideways	ADJ	Degree=Pos	10 start	compound
10	start	start	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 gives	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	give	present	the Earth's spin	Earth					vn give-13.1-1 «NP V NP-Dative NP»: agent=Agent it=Recipient start=Theme
2	spin		the Earth						nom spin «event transitive»: poss=agent

Option 3

The Moon helps pull it up

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 Moon	det
2	Moon	Moon	PROPN	Number=Sing	3 helps	nsubj
3	helps	help	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
4	pull	pull	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	3 helps	xcomp
5	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	4 pull	obj
6	up	up	ADP	_	4 pull	compound:prt

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	help	present	the Moon						vn help-72.1-1-1 «NP V NP S_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	pull up	infinitive	the Moon not said here	Moon					vn push-12-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme

Option 4 · ← Mova's choice

The air is thinner there

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 air	det
2	air	air	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 thinner	nsubj
3	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 thinner	cop
4	thinner	thin	ADJ	Degree=Cmp	root	root
5	there	there	ADV	PronType=Dem	4 thinner	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is	present	the air			there		thin property	tree rules

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/physics/38-rockets-record-speeds-and-motion-everywhere/t8/